Eye care & the gender gap. Let’s talk about it.

Photo by Apurva Shroff: At 16 years of age, Arati (on the right with her mother) was diagnosed with diabetes, causing cataracts in both her eyes. After receiving a free cataract surgery she is considering going back to school and continuing her studies!

It’s 2024, and women are still struggling to access equitable health care. How is this? Supporters like you have asked us this question quite a few times and we’re glad you do – we appreciate the hard q’s.

The disparities we’re grappling with are centuries old. Economic barriers, gender politics, and social norms – to name a few – make it difficult for women in developing countries to access eye care. 

Seva has worked to untangle and address these challenges for 45 years. From hiring and training local women as eye care professionals who can contribute to the local economy, to gender-responsive outreach and policy advocacy, we work in more than 20 countries to empower and serve women.

Here are a few of the profound ways you are helping Seva to level the playing field for women and girls.

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Meet the Heroes Next Door

Uma Ganga
Uma Ganga examines a patient’s eyes.

They walk the world as ophthalmologists, technicians, nurses, outreach workers, and more. 

In reality, they’re heroes. 

It takes a village to end avoidable blindness. Surgeons, health administrators, and so many others are crucial links in a patient’s journey to clear sight. We couldn’t do it without them. 

But who are these remarkable folks? We’ve found that the best eye care professionals are right next door – members of the local community who understand what’s needed to provide culturally adept care. With your support, we invest in their world-class training at every single level – from health volunteers to highly skilled ophthalmologists. This ensures that local communities will always have access to eye care, even long after Seva’s direct involvement. 

We call them the heroes next door. Meet a few of them and see why.

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Join us on the Flight for Sight!

Bangladesh Boys

From the Himalayan mountains to the Amazonian rainforests of Peru, Seva delivers vital eye care to 20+ countries. So pack your virtual bags, and take a trip with us right from your screens to witness the beauty you create in this world. 

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First Stop 
BANGLADESH

Since 2006, Seva has worked in Bangladesh to deliver vital eye care, treatment, and resources for those in remote communities. Here, the rate of blindness is nearly 3X that of the United States. Access to eye care is everything

Earlier this year, we set out to raise funds for 7 new Vision Centers (VC) across the country, matched by a generous family – and we achieved it, together! These new VCs, currently in development, will create immediate access to eye care for 700,000 people in remote areas and will address up to 80% of all of their eye care needs!

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Thank you for helping us make eye care more effective!

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Photo: Seva’s Global Training Specialist, Arun Acharaya with the SCEH team in New Delhi (2019)

Every day, your support makes an essential difference around the world. In addition to transforming lives by restoring sight, your heartfelt donations help provide training for all levels of eye care workers – increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of eye care hospitals and improving long-term access to eye care for years to come.

Thanks to supporters like you, we launched a new in-depth training program at Dr. Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital, our partner in Delhi, India, in August 2020. Sixteen of their employees joined our year-long “Program on Quality and Excellence” to improve their leadership skills. Taught by Seva Foundation’s Global Training Specialist, Mr. Arun Acharya, the program features weekly three-hour online workshops. These workshops aim to improve participants’ communication skills, helping them develop stronger, more efficient business plans, and train them to promote high-quality care that is STEEEP:  Safe, Timely, Effective, Efficient, Equitable, and Patient-centered. The program is currently on hold due to the Covid-19 situation in India. We will resume once it’s safe to do so.

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Do you know who trains the trainers?

Celebrating Excellence in Eye Care Training for 12 years in July, 2019.
Celebrating Excellence in Eye Care Training for 12 years in July, 2019.

There are millions of people in the world in need of eye care services and not enough trained eye care professionals to provide care. Your generous support enables us to provide critical training for ophthalmic support staff. These individuals are professionally trained vision care workers who assist ophthalmologists and optometrists with routine clinical or non-clinical activities. With their assistance, ophthalmologists can focus on more advanced and complex cases. Together, they can provide care to more people, more efficiently.

But who trains the trainers? How do we make sure the teachers are giving their students the best information across the board? Eyexcel is how.

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